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Extended English abstracts of articles published in the Chinese edition of Journal of Library Science in China 2018 Vol.44 165

A study of university and college students’ academic reading format
preference and behavior in China: A comparative research supported by
global survey data
XIAO Peng〇, PAN Yantao & ZHANG Jiuzhen
〇a*
The Academic Reading Format International Study (ARFIS) is an international research project
which so far includes researchers from 36 different countries or regions. The purpose of such a
project is to explore university and college students’ preference for academic reading format and
information behaviors. China is one of the earliest countries that involved in the ARFIS project.
Based on the brief report published on the European Conference on Information Literacy 2017,
the article shed light on the results of China’s ARFIS research team and compares that with the
world’s average survey data. Adopting the Academic Reading Questionnaire, the ARFIS research
team of China collects 1,165 valid samples from 16 provinces/municipalities. The authors re-
organize the traditional analysis framework of ARFIS, and discuss the result from 5 aspects,
including: ① University and college students’ general preference on the academic reading format;
② University and college students’ recognition on the relationship between academic reading
format and learning effect; ③ The relevance of learning behavior and academic reading format; ④
Influence factors on academic reading format preference, such as language, length of the text and
the convenience of reading format; ⑤ University and college students’ usage on different digital
devices. However, the result above could only reveal the general situation of students’ academic
reading preference but impossible to reach the crux of the matter. Therefore, in-depth interviews
are also performed on 40 students from 5 universities for further explanation. In the procedure of
qualitative interviews, the researchers pay special attention to questions that show the differences
of reading format preference between China and the other parts of the world, such as Chinese
students’ particular preference on using the cellphone as an academic reading device. Combing the
result of quantitative and qualitative research, the findings of the article are two folds: ① China’s
university and college students still prefer paper materials in academic reading, same as most
countries of the world; ② The academic reading format preference and information behavior of
China’s university and college students has close relationship to do with China’s unique culture
context and internet environment. The research team comes up with 3 suggestions for academic
libraries in China. First, the purchases of paper materials are still important for academic libraries.
Secondly, it’s necessary to transform and renew the outdated framework in information literacy
education, and show great concern for students’ academic abilities in the digital age. And the
last one is to stay close to student users and build up a data-driven decision-making system for
academic librarians.

∗ Correspondence should be addressed to XIAO Peng, Email:xiaop25@mail.sysu.edu.cn, ORCID: 0000-0002-6668-8122